After Thursday’s first round of the RBC Heritage, the field is looking up at Justin Thomas ($10,200; 68.5 FPTS), who blistered the green with a 10-under round (61) to tie the course record.
The day started off well with two birdies on the first two holes. Thomas then finished the front nine with four more birdies. The back nine wasn’t so great with a bogey on the first hole, but Thomas brushed it off like dandruff with five birdies, which included a three-birdie streak on Holes 15, 16 and 17.
In the $1M Sand Trap tournament, Thomas is rostered on 11.87% of teams, the 20th-most.
DK Sportsbook has Thomas at +230 to win it all, the second-lowest odds.
The current favorite is Scottie Scheffler ($13,100; 49.5 FPTS) at +190. Scheffler is also the most rostered golfer at 28.63%.
Scheffler’s first round wasn’t historic, but it was pretty, pretty good. Like Thomas, Scheffler birdied the first two holes of the day. He then finished the front nine with three more birdies. The back nine was uneventful with two birdies, but the round ended unblemished and the -7 (64) is only three strokes behind Thomas.
Scheffler wasn’t the only golfer to go -7 (64) on Thursday. Russell Henley ($9,700; 52.5 FPTS) also accomplished the feat. Like Scheffler, Henley also had an unblemished round with three birdies on the front nine and four birdies on the back nine, which included a three-birdie streak on Holes 14, 15 and 16. Henley has the third-lowest odds to win it all at +900.
There is one other golfer rostered on over 20% of teams, and that is Collin Morikawa ($10,900; 19 FPTS) at 26.24%.
Morikawa birdied the first hole of the day, but gave it right back with a bogey two holes later then closed out the front nine with another bogey. The back nine was cleaner with three birdies. Morikawa finished Thursday -2 (69) and is eight strokes off the lead. Morikawa is at +3500 to win it all, tied for the sixth-lowest odds.
There was only one golfer rostered on at least 10% of teams that had a rough opening round:
Sahith Theegala ($7,300; 6.5 FPTS) is rostered on 12.71% of teams. He shot a +4 (75) on Thursday. The front nine consisted of two bogeys and a birdie. The back nine had three more bogeys, including one on the final hole of the round.
